Ery̆thræum mare, a part of the ocean on the coast of Arabia. As it has a communication with the Persian gulf, and that of Arabia or the Red sea, it has often been mistaken by the ancient writers, who by the word Erythran, understood indiscriminately either the Red sea or the Persian gulf. It received this name either from Erythras, or from the redness (ἐρυθρος, ruber) of its sand or waters. Curtius, bk. 8, ch. 9.—Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 23.—Herodotus, bk. 1, chs. 180 & 189; bk. 3, ch. 93; bk. 4, ch. 37.—Mela, bk. 3, ch. 8.
Ery̆thras, a son of Hercules. Apollodorus.——A son of Perseus and Andromeda, drowned in the Red sea, which from him was called Erythræum. Arrian, Indica, bk. 6, ch. 10.—Mela, bk. 3, ch. 7.
Erythrion, a son of Athamas and Themistone. Apollodorus.
Ery̆thros, a place of Latium.
Eryx, a son of Butes and Venus, who, relying upon his strength, challenged all strangers to fight with him in the combat of the cestus. Hercules accepted his challenge after many had yielded to his superior dexterity, and Eryx was killed in the combat, and buried on the mountain, where he had built a temple to Venus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 402.——An Indian killed by his subjects for opposing Alexander, &c. Curtius, bk. 8, ch. 11.——A mountain of Sicily, now Giuliano, near Drepanum, which received its name from Eryx, who was buried there. This mountain was so steep that the houses which were built upon it seemed every moment ready to fall. Dædalus had enlarged the top, and enclosed it with a strong wall. He also consecrated there to Venus Erycina a golden heifer, which so much resembled life, that it seemed to exceed the power of art. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 4, li. 478.—Hyginus, fables 16 & 260.—Livy, bk. 22, ch. 9.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 16.
Eryxo, the mother of Battus, who artfully killed the tyrant Learchus who courted her. Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 160.
Esernus, a famous gladiator. Cicero.
Esquĭliæ and Esquilīnus mons, one of the seven hills of Rome, which was joined to the city by king Tullus. Birds of prey generally came to devour the dead bodies of criminals who had been executed there, and thence they were called Esquilinæ alites. Livy, bk. 2, ch. 11.—Horace, epode 5, li. 100.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 2, ch. 32.
Essedŏnes, a people of Asia, above the Palus Mæotis, who ate the flesh of their parents mixed with that of cattle. They gilded the head and kept it as sacred. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 1.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 12.
Essui, a people of Gaul.